I would agree the environment these coolers are running in is much different from what's on top of the house. Principle is the same. The clamp only gives you the ability to adjust. And when you're a service tech and you're having to fix these things and people want their systems to cool for them. Your start to understand what makes it cooler and how to adjust it to make it work better. I'm not Suggesting anybody change anything about their design. Only put a clamp on the hose and try cutting back the water you're using. Cooling or dust removal which do you want? I'm sure there's a happy medium between the two. I'm just giving you one piece that I think every Buddy has been missing in these builds. Nothing more.

Just to add a little bit of perspective.
From my dad In his 80s did this work all of his life. He describes The location of where he lived as 50 miles from Bakersfield and 50 miles from Fresno right in the middle up against the foothills. Fixed coolers in the tens of thousands.
What I've heard my dad tell a customer.
That $150 you were more than happy to pay me for the service call to come out and fix your cooler on this humid day...... and now it's blowing that beautiful cool air. all I did is screw that screw in five turns like this so you know how to adjust your cooler next time. The old ladies in the city loved him and would pay the 150 bucks just to have him come by and see them.

That's nice. And for those water flow rates, air flow rates, and pad media.

For these DIY swamp coolers, when built as designed with the correct parts/materials, and humidity and temperature is measured, these are cooling at or near the max according to the evaporative cooling tables. If you're getting 90%, 95% or 100% of the evaporative cooling potential, where's the improvement going to come from...

The blue duracool pad is constructed differently than the flat faceted "paper" media based pads of yester-year. The duracool pad has HUGE water-to-air surface area for the footprint area.

In these designs, when built ... etc.., cutting back on water flow results in dry spots in the pad, passing hot dusty air through the pad, raising the temperature of the cooler's output.

There have been some reports of performance issues where someone has used a crazy super-duper pump; and now you're saying that water flow may be an issue. I can see how some of the home cooler flat faceted "paper" media based pads would have their air flow paths decreased by too generous of a water flow (we've seen some coolers built with those types of media, with poor performance, particularly once they swell and have reduced air flow paths). But I've missed where you've explained how the water flow rates on these DIY cooler blue pads, where we know there are plenty of air flow paths and a humongous amount of water-to-air surface area, and the remaining factors of ambient humidity, temperature or air dwell time against water surface, can result in reduced performance.

In a related concern, I'm waiting to hear how the AFB1212GHE-CF00 240 cfm, 27.48 mm H2O fan did on the playa, as the pressure of 27.49mm instead of 17.74 mm, may suck air through the pad too quickly, reducing dwell time.

Video games are giving kids unrealistic expectations on how many swords they can carry.
.... but don't harm the red dragon that frequents the area from time to time. He and I have an agreement.

I have to disagree on the "Large coolers on top of houses only have small drips of water running down into the pad not a big full stream of water." statement. It may look like a small drip but there is a large amount of water running through the pads. Not a water fall but much more than a drip. (I too have done a lot of swamp cooler work in the past )

The Bucket Coolers are a compromise to a home style cooler. Everything about it is too small. But it works for a week in the "very dry climate of the playa" when done right. I have not seen many builds with an over sized pump(s), (other than mine anyway.. lol ) The clamps you speak of do help when running swampys during conditions on the upper end of their humidity range. This is not a problem on the playa.

Edit: FigJam beat me too it.... The biggest fail I notice is not doing the holes spaced/square/on the center line/etc. on the header tube. Get this wrong and one will have dry spots no matter how much water you push through it. The other is not sealing the lid to the media allowing air to bypass the media. After that its choking down the fan duct to the cooled space or too long of duct. Then no vent.

It was so dry this year I had trouble keeping both layers of my media completely wet. I run two 130G/hr pumps. One for each layer of media. The inner pad would completely wet but the outer pad, on the upwind side, would have a dry spot or two. Even if I shut down the fan for a few minutes to let it 'catch up', it would dry out again. The more water you could throw at the pads the better this year.

It was just flat hot and dry out there.

2nd time better than the first. And the first was pretty Freakin' Great!
I am Camp2.- A solo camp - Stop by and say Hey!, Gotta beer?

If you are another Solo Burner & very 'Radically Self Reliant' - Maybe we can 'Do What We Do!'

I made my initial set of holes too big, and had to redrill them in a spare piece to maintain enough pressure to spray out all the holes. I actually looked up FIGJAM's suggested 10 AWG wire diameter to match the drill bit size and it ended up working well after that. This was with a pretty standard 4.8W water pump.

I'll have to upgrade my fan next time though. Good way to keep extra cool and use up the water.

"The essence of tyranny is not iron law. It is capricious law." -- Christopher Hitchens

One thing I did notice is that my inner pad was mostly dry. My drip ring works fine as far as wetting the outer pad, but the inner pad was only wet where it sat in the water below the big holes. I'm thinking to get the inner pad wet I'd have to run a second drip ring. Yes? No?

Don't bore your friends with all your troubles. Tell your enemies instead, for they will delight in hearing about them.

Figjam: Given how much issue there is with fans not being powerful enough, perhaps there's some merit to figuring out a solution to mounting the tubing without a second layer. It seems each pad contributes a significant amount of resistance. I took one pad out of my design mid-burn and didn't notice improvement in cooling.

I did not find that my cooler worked amazing, but it did work. I think there are gains to be had. I'm concerned that my pump (I used 500L/H pump) put too much water on the pad, and with the significant surface tension inherent in water, I lost surface area for air exchange as the fibers were "melded" together by water.

I plan to do some modification and more testing at different flow rates for next year with an improved design.

I'd not complicate things with a second drip ring, pump etc. I know we're calling it a "drip ring" but it should not be "DRIPPING", it should really be SPRAYING a fine stream of water out of every hole. My swampie gets both layers of pad pretty much totally damp. May need to adjust the placement of the drip ring, the holes, or tweak the circumference just slightly to ensure an even distribution of water thru the pads. If you have dry spots in the pad, the hot air will seek these out and dilute your cold air noticeably. Good luck!

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It would use more energy, parts, and you have more points of failure. I like the KISS principle but understood not everyone agrees.
The single drip-ring is quite elegant in that it fits around the inner blue pad, which fits just about perfectly around the CPU fan. I don't know if you could fit another drip ring on the inner pad without interfering with the assembly of the CPU fan and blue cylinder, which could introduce gaps. But try it and prove me wrong!

asr9754 wrote:It would use more energy, parts, and you have more points of failure. I like the KISS principle but understood not everyone agrees.
The single drip-ring is quite elegant in that it fits around the inner blue pad, which fits just about perfectly around the CPU fan. I don't know if you could fit another drip ring on the inner pad without interfering with the assembly of the CPU fan and blue cylinder, which could introduce gaps. But try it and prove me wrong!

For a couple of years now, I have watched people pole vault over the mouse turds .. I drilled and built a cooler the first year it was posted .. It cools just fine .. If your having problems ?? Go back to the first post.. Forget what you think you know.. Build your Homer cooler as directed in the first draft..

Shout out to FIGJAM as always for the how-to articles. My cooler was a disaster this year. It sounded like the fan kicked into a low power mode after Day 2. There were sporadic intervals of full power followed by long spouts of barely any breeze .

Any ideas?

I'm going to gut it and redo it for BEquinox this year. Is anyone kind enough to post links to recommended fan and pump so I don't have to scour through the 136 pages?

These are the parts i used this go around:

Pretty sure i was using a 27DC or 29DC from interstate battery.

I'm no Electrical engineer, but the wires on these two products didn't turn out to be the same gauge. I believe the fan was 24 and the pump 28. May have played into the cause.

skyy wrote:It sounded like the fan kicked into a low power mode after Day 2. There were sporadic intervals of full power followed by long spouts of barely any breeze .Sounds like a loose connection

Pretty sure i was using a 27DC or 29DC from interstate battery.You mean Group 27 or Group 29? That is (mostly) the outside dimensions of the battery. Makes very little difference.
I'm no Electrical engineer, but the wires on these two products didn't turn out to be the same gauge. I believe the fan was 24 and the pump 28. May have played into the cause. Wire size is determined by the draw of the device they are connected and the quality of the item

Sounds like a loose connectionPossibly but i tinkered with them a bit and couldn't get a response from any adjustments.

Pretty sure i was using a 27DC or 29DC from interstate battery.You mean Group 27 or Group 29? That is (mostly) the outside dimensions of the battery. Makes very little difference.
I'm no Electrical engineer, but the wires on these two products didn't turn out to be the same gauge. I believe the fan was 24 and the pump 28. May have played into the cause. Wire size is determined by the draw of the device they are connected and the quality of the item[/quote][/quote]
Yea sorry that was a quick google search- Actual battery is Exide 31MDC, 830 Cranking 115 Amp hours

Has anyone experimented with a rectangle or box shaped design (such as a regular cooler) ?

1. Dust filter at air intake vent
2. Tape either one big chunky pad or a series of multiple thinner pads up tightly to the interior sides of the cooler
3. A simple "in parallel" sprinkler irrigation system to evenly distribute the water across this thicker larger pad or the multiple thinner pads
4. insulating foam taped on the lid which fits snuggly up against the top of the evap padding thus preventing any gaps for air to bypass the evaporative layer
5. Nice big fan sucking from output end

The key idea is to generate a more laminar airflow running across the pad (or pads) in a single direction. The round bucket design has no choice but to create non-laminar turblent airflow stream which reduces effectiveness (according to science on the topic).

It's just a DIY version of a commercial / industrial design.

Thoughts??

edit: I didn't want to read the entire 136 pages of this thread, but I didn't have to. There is an example of this design on this page above. I realise the cylindrical bucket coolers work, but it doesn't look as though that design is commonly used in commercial/industrial applications.

Then I went to the bin (16489-j "junk" subheading A "awsume") and found some handles.

Then make an air tight lid.(figure it out)

Finished cooler looks like this.

I call it the universal cooler cause you just shove the pad side against any opening in a tent, bus, travel trailer, yurt, or playpod and it will cool up to 3000 cubic feet of space. You can even set it on a table outside for use.

Add some foam stickon wheather stripping for a good seal around a window.

Fill it with 7gals. of water for 8hrs. of cooling. So once a day depending on how much you use it.

105ah battery will run this 5hr. a day, all week on low.

You may have to recharge if you use medium or high speed on the fan.

I'm confident that this will cool even a school bus without useing a genny and its a lot quieter than an air conditioner.

The last design here showing air intake on 3 sides, would work better (theoretically according to physical science) if you just draw the same total volume of air through one side (the opposite side of the fan), and make a thicker layer of evaporative media which the air must pass through.

Residential and industrial evap coolers fall into two styles. The 'cell deck media' found in MasterCool units which do use a single media deck. And the rest of the mfg's three or four sided units. These use expanded paper, poly or aspen chunks for media.

If you start to look a industrial evap towers, (same thing, much larger scale) they come in all shapes, sizes & configurations.

One can take all the time to create a laminar flow across the media making sure every square inch of media as seeing the same air flow. If for home or industrial use where the goal is long life and most efficient operation you will see 'some' improvement. For a week in the dust its just not worth the effort for what gains you achieve. Just look at the millions of three and four sided coolers out there.

If you take the time to look through even the last 10 pages or so you will see others have tried the single pad design with varying success. Will it work? Sure. Has it been done? Yes. So build it if you want. nobody is stopping you.

Note: You don't need a filter ahead of the media. The water does a fine job of removing any dust. Adding an air filter just adds restriction to air flow.

As we have told many, don't over think it, do what has been proven for almost a decade now. Spend the time on other things.

2nd time better than the first. And the first was pretty Freakin' Great!
I am Camp2.- A solo camp - Stop by and say Hey!, Gotta beer?

If you are another Solo Burner & very 'Radically Self Reliant' - Maybe we can 'Do What We Do!'

Residential and industrial evap coolers fall into two styles. The 'cell deck media' found in MasterCool units which do use a single media deck. And the rest of the mfg's three or four sided units. These use expanded paper, poly or aspen chunks for media.

snip

Sure, but I'm a scientist. It's my job to over think anything which has a scientific basis, and besides, I enjoy it

didjeridude wrote:Has anyone experimented with a rectangle or box shaped design (such as a regular cooler) ?
1. Dust filter at air intake vent
2. Tape either one big chunky pad or a series of multiple thinner pads up tightly to the interior sides of the cooler
3. A simple "in parallel" sprinkler irrigation system to evenly distribute the water across this thicker larger pad or the multiple thinner pads
4. insulating foam taped on the lid which fits snuggly up against the top of the evap padding thus preventing any gaps for air to bypass the evaporative layer
5. Nice big fan sucking from output end
The key idea is to generate a more laminar airflow running across the pad (or pads) in a single direction. The round bucket design has no choice but to create non-laminar turblent airflow stream which reduces effectiveness (according to science on the topic).
It's just a DIY version of a commercial / industrial design.
Thoughts??
edit: I didn't want to read the entire 136 pages of this thread, but I didn't have to. There is an example of this design on this page above. I realise the cylindrical bucket coolers work, but it doesn't look as though that design is commonly used in commercial/industrial applications.

It's pretty much all been done before. Tons of failures where people either didn't follow the design or didn't understand how/why they work and made changes on how they "felt" or guessed they work.

As EGAZ says, no pre-filter. For use on the playa, use the blue filter or risk falling into the failed designs.

"Nice big fan" makes me worried you think more is better. You don't want the airflow "across" the pad, but through the pad. The fine fibres make for the surface area and herd/regulate/manage the airflow; proper airfow at the correct speed makes for the dwell time; combining to provide effective evaporative cooling. If there's too much air flow, there's reduced dwell time.

Laminar/non-laminar airflow is irrelevant with these designs at their velocities. Once the air is at and is being pulled through the pad, it's airflow is defined/controlled by the wet pad structure. Which is why for playa use you need the blue pad. Simplifies so many things.

You'll find that the bucket design, with the pad properly spaced out from the bucket sidewall, at the velocities it operates, the air into through the intake holes meets the pulled airflow from the negative pressure on the inside of the pad roll. With the bucket sitting outside, a big blow comes at velocities that overwhelm the size of the holes, which will limit overwhelming the bucket - yes that has turbulence.

IF (and that's a very big IF) you understand why the nicely working designs work well, then various box designs can be easily engineered.

Start with the example at the link to earlier in this thread that I gave above, and read through the logic behind those corrections/enhancements.

The end "functioning well" on the playa is not simply a matter of any design and mechanical assembly. If you stick to the designs that are known to work, then for the size of fan, type of fan, pump, pad, pad type, etc., you know you will have a balance between water flow, air flow, surface area, dwell time, and a pad that will be cleansed by the water flow, and will last with the playa soil/dust. If you deviate away too far (or by simply having the wrong type of fan, or pad, ), then you'll have to balance all of the factors yourself, or it's not going to work well... Complaints all the time from people who didn't understand ALL of the factors that combine to make an efficient and practical design, and once they were too off of spec... they were just doing hit & miss.

Video games are giving kids unrealistic expectations on how many swords they can carry.
.... but don't harm the red dragon that frequents the area from time to time. He and I have an agreement.